Notre Dame Researchers Build Sideline Diagnostic App for Concussions

A new tablet app could provide immediate, accurate, and portable diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries.

From the school that brought you Rudy comes another great in
contact sports: a diagnostic app that could give medics a better
understanding of the effects of concussions in sports.

Researchers
at Notre Dame are developing an app for tablet computers that will
hopefully allow them to diagnose concussions quickly and easily, without
the use of large equipment.

They say the new app offers numerous
advantages over other testing measures, such as CT or MRI scans,
including providing highly accurate results at a low cost on a
highly-portable machine.

“This project is a great example of how
mobile computing and sensing technologies can transform healthcare,”
Christian Poellabauer, associate professor of computer science and
engineering, tells Healthline. “More important, because almost 90
percent of concussions go unrecognized, this technology offers
tremendous potential to reduce the impact of concussive and
sub-concussive hits to the head.”

How the App Works

Before
and after a sporting event, a competitor speaks into the tablet's
microphone. The app then takes the two voice samples and compares them,
searching for signs of traumatic brain injury, including changes in
pitch, distorted vowels, hyper-nasality, and poorly pronounced
consonants.

Researchers tested the app during the school’s Bengal
Bouts boxing tournament. During last year’s fights, the tool
successfully confirmed nine concussions in about 125 contestants. Data
from the Baraka Bouts—the female boxing tournament—as well as this
year’s bouts are being compared to the findings by the school’s medical
team.

Since the app is still in development, it’s unknown when it will be available to the public.

Because
90 percent of concussions in sports and the military go undetected,
Poelleabaer said their new technology could be used ringside to
immediately address serious head injuries before an athlete or soldier
re-takes the field.

The Need for Better Diagnoses

Concussions
in sports have been getting lots of attention lately because science is
catching onto the effects of having your head regularly bashed.

A condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
has been appearing in many retired NFL players. The condition has been
linked to memory loss, depression, personality changes, dementia, and
other serious disorders.

A
major concern is that athletes not be put back into play after
suffering a head injury. Luckily, most professional sports teams now
require that a team doctor or trainer clear a player after a serious
injury.

Innovative technologies like the Notre Dame app could
help make that process quicker, more reliable, and easily accessible to
reduce the effects of chronic head injuries on future generations.

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